Profiles can be solid, hollow, or both. Gaskets and profiles based on molded or extruded thermoplastic elastomeric materials are known in the art.
Extruded profiles find application in building construction articles such as window glaze seals, door or window frame seals, clamping joints for window panes, expansion joints for buildings curtain wall gaps or paved floor gaps, flexible lip seals (windows). Extruded profiles may also find use in vehicular parts such as interior trim, gaskets, O-rings, window seals, door seals, and the like. Such extruded profiles, used as construction, building or vehicle parts (hereinafter “extruded profiles”) are intended generally to provide a seal against fluids such as for instance, air, water, and the like. Those seals can be dense or foamed type.
Ethylene, alpha-olefin, diene monomer elastomeric polymer based compounds are known to be generally the elastomers of choice for these demanding extruded profile uses, due to their higher filler acceptance, along with their excellent ozone, weathering and temperature resistance, compared to other previously used elastomers such as styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), butadiene rubber (BR), plasticized polyvinyl chloride, and the like.
Performance specifications of extruded profiles intended for building/construction or vehicular use are targeted toward the best elasticity and service life at high temperature. Also it focuses on good elasticity retention at low temperature to ensure the sealing properties in winter as well as to make sure that the expansion joint fulfills its function after contraction or dilatation of the panels due to thermal variation or building movement. So high elastomeric polymer concentration in extruded profile compounds are generally the norm due to the need for higher elasticity (higher elongation/strain and/or lower tensile or compression set). These facts combined with the needs of the extruded profile part manufacturer to produce a high quality part, at low cost, indicate a need for ever higher performance and manufacturing standards for elastomeric polymers, compounds made from these elastomeric polymers, and parts such as extruded profiles made from these compounds.
Extruded profile manufacturers continue to look for improvements in their manufacturing economies, while maintaining the high quality demand of extruded profiles.
WO9700291 discloses extruded profiles utilizing ethylene, α-olefin, vinyl norbornene elastomeric polymers displaying improved processability and improved vulcanization characteristics having a broader range of useful temperatures, improved compression set, while improving processing and or processing economics.
A problem faced with sealing profiles or molding running around the entire inner surface of a frame in the state of the art is to obtain complete sealing. Care must be taken that the all-round sealing profile is closed in itself, i.e. that the profile ends facing one another are actually joined with one another. To that end, the ends of the continuous profiles facing one another in the corner areas are typically mitered in such a way that the miter joints of profiles arriving from different directions lie perfectly against each other and can then be glued together, welded together where the profiles of plastic, or in the case of rubber profiles, vulcanized together, the occurrence of slit places, irregular joints and the like being able to reduce considerably not only the sealing effect, but also the heat and sound insulation of such seals.
It has now been found that materials according to the present invention are capable to combine advantageous thermo-mechanical properties and processability, meeting the requirements for the application in extruded profile seals (e.g. for use as windows profiles) and also help solving the above said problem of sealing profile ends in itself, avoiding time-consuming, expensive and labor-intensive after treatment of such corner joints (gluing, welding etc.).
The present invention is providing specific materials suitable for producing extruded or molded profiles having self-healing properties, that is to say that at room temperature (25° C.) the material when cut and stick in itself is providing considerable stress at break and strain also without heat or glue treatment.